UN plan to name 'genocide accused' Sudan President to Human Rights Council sparks outrage

Geneva, July 14 (ANI): The United Nations' decision to make Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir a member of its Human Rights Council after accusing him of genocide has outraged many rights activists, according to a report.

Al-Bashir is set to join what the UN bills as its foremost arbiter of human rights abuses.

According to a Fox News report, the move is the latest absurd example of the UN selection process that repeatedly places rogue states in global leadership positions.

"Electing Sudan to the UN body mandated to promote and protect human rights worldwide is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women's shelter," fumed Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which monitors the Council in Geneva.

"But it's the way the UN works," Neuer added.

Sudan is among five countries the African Union (AU) is moving to present to fill the five upcoming seats on the 47-member Council that are reserved for the region.

The move comes even though the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a global arrest warrant for al-Bashir in 2009 for his part in his Arab-led government's alleged involvement in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity targeting blacks in western Sudan's Darfur region.

A senior official with the U.S. mission to the UN urged the AU to stop an ICC-indicted war criminal from being named to the UN Council.

"We are obviously very much opposed, but this is not a done deal, and we urge members of the AU to do the right thing and stop an ICC-indicted war criminal from taking a seat on the Human Rights Council," the report quoted the official, as saying.

According to the report, the election process favoring rogue states is pervasive at the UN.

For example, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was appointment in May as a UN tourism envoy for a major UN conference, despite his decades-old record of serious human rights abuses. (ANI)